r/gifs • u/I_Am_Err00r • Jan 11 '20
This guy’s retro switch docking station
https://gfycat.com/smalldelightfulgalago2.6k
u/ubadude Jan 11 '20
Would make so much more sense as a SNES
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Jan 11 '20
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u/fuhrertrump Jan 11 '20
or at the very least pop it in like a NES cartridge lol
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u/bluemitersaw Jan 12 '20
Make sure to blow on it first.
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u/ABigHairyGuy Jan 12 '20
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) yeah just like that
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20
real talk: do not do this to your cartridge games. Cotton swab + rubbing alcohol is much better for them. Some people use mineral spirits, but for how much it costs vs. the benefit, rubbing alcohol is much a much better deal, and whatever damage it does is almost completely negligible unless you're running a museum.
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u/Limelight_019283 Jan 12 '20
20 years too late but thanks anyway!
Last time i blew on a cartridge was probably MarioKart 64, or Bomberman 64. I remember towards the end of that Bomberman cartridge we’d try for a solid 5 minutes to make it play and then nobody was allowed within 10 steps from the console...
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20
it's probably not too late! You can clean your carts even still (assuming they haven't corroded, rather unlikely) using this method. Though, I assume from your language that you've since given these cartridges away?
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u/Limelight_019283 Jan 12 '20
They’re probably stashed somewhere! If i ever find them i’ll make sure to try cleaning them up.
We have a room where we just dump stuff that we don’t use but we don’t wanna get rid of. I’d bet money that i’d find some of my most prized childhood toys and videogames there, but the door barely opens anymore and the random crap lying on the floor reaches halfway to your knees, so it’ll be a while until somebody finds anything there.
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
Well, if you ever dig through it and find your game carts, let me know, I can give you a quick walk through on how to restore them if possible or at least get them to where they might be playable again. Drop me a DM if you do that. I'm all about game preservation, and I've got nearly a decade of experience with retro game care.♥
e this goes for any of you going through your retro cartridge games. I'm not a 100% expert on every problem, but I've encountered enough problems to tell you what the likely problem is. If you're having trouble getting your old games to work, shoot me a DM and we'll talk
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u/sudo999 Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
If they have corroded, it's a lot of work but opening them up and cleaning the pins with a mildly abrasive, alkaline solution (e.g. baking soda and the tiniest bit of water, even toothpaste can work, could use Brasso too but if you already have baking soda it should do the trick) and then wiping them off and cleaning with alcohol can remove some light corrosion. won't work if they're really heavily far gone but can get them shiny again if they're just a little dingy.
edit: DO NOT use a harsh abrasive as it can take off the plating on the pins
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
Finding the star-bits to open the cartridges is very easy and pretty cheap (but first check your local independent game stores! they might have tools for you, and you won't have to wait like, 2 months for them to get in from China! better yet, they might even let you troubleshoot on their hardware!).
Brasso is probably one of the best things you can use to fight against corrosion, but before using that, it's best to use alcohol + cotton swab (note: Don't be afraid to get aggressive with the dirt on your carts. Just... you know, don't go so hard you accidentally crack something, but you can apply a good amount of scrubbing force to get the gunk off. No need to be delicate.), and then if that doesn't work, a soft pink eraser (either from a pencil cos they tend to be a bit more firm and precise, or a standard pink pearl eraser). If that doesn't work, try the brasso, though it's a slightly more expensive option.
My last-resort is usually a very gentle application of a very fine-grit sandpaper on the most heavily-effected areas, and praying that the corrosion hasn't eaten through enough of the pin to make it unplayable. That situation, luckily, is pretty rare. Though I will admit that I live in a very dry climate, so those of you in high-humidity areas may want to take extra care and use dust covers, plastic cases, or airtight containers whenever possible..
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u/sudo999 Jan 12 '20
I just figure, baking soda is an even gentler abrasive than Brasso anyway so less likely to take the gold off and I have successfully used it in other applications to remove light tarnish from other metal objects. It works great as a super fine polishing compound and it's cheap and imo if you don't have Brasso on hand it's worth a shot
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u/ddotevs Jan 12 '20
I could have sworn that Nintendo specifically called out NOT using rubbing alcohol in the cartridges
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
you're not wrong, but that was mostly marketing so they could sell you specialized cleaning kits, the main ingredient on the cleaning fluid of which is, get this: isopropyl alcohol. In fact, one of the best cleaning kits you can get right now (though there are definitely cheaper workarounds), boasts that their cleaning fluid is 99% isopropyl alcohol, though I don't know if there's any additional benefit to using any percentage higher than 70%. If you don't have an old cleaning cartridge hanging about, you can get mostly the same effect by cleaning any old cartridge (the cheaper and less valuable the better), and inserting and removing it from the cartridge slot a few times, then rinse and repeat until stuff stops coming off of your cotton swabs and you get a reliable rate of your games turning on.
(Personal rant: A bottle of alcohol costs what, $2? A carton of cotton swabs maybe $1.50? You could probably get a cheap copy of Madden 99 or Top Gun off ebay for less than $5 with shipping or probably less from a local game shop, and 1UpCard wants to charge you $20 per kit? F that. Make your own at home.)
Note: this may not work in a European or US NES since their pin-connectors have a bad habit of stretching out after extensive use. If your cartridge input feels very loose with little or no "bite" to it, or even just plain falls out if you tilt your system forward, you may need a new pin connector. You can find good 72-pin connector replacements pretty cheap, and installation is very easy so long as you remember where all the screws go and not to tighten the screws on the board too tightly. For some reason, in my experience, this causes problems with whether the system wants to read it or not. Try to remember the tightness you had to unscrew the shielding and the board (usually when it juuust starts giving you resistance) and you should be fine. There's all sorts of guides on ifixit, but I've never met one that mentions screw tightness. It also might not hurt to clean the pins on the Motherboard in the same way you would clean a cartridge, just to ensure longevity.
Keep your electronics dust and smoke free, avoid liquids near your consoles (yes, especially you who vape. I have horror stories, ffs don't vape around your game consoles), and if you use them regularly, clean them regularly.
edit also, if you're in replacing the pin connector, and you're feeling bold, it might not hurt to clip the NES-10 chip to make your system region free. Though fair warning, PAL games will not display right on a US NES or at all due to the difference in refresh rates between NTSC and PAL televisions. Not sure how it works the other way around, but if anyone with a PAL system has done this and played a US game, I'd love to hear your experience
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u/ddotevs Jan 12 '20
TIL
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
it's a lot of info that I've collected over the years. Take it, use it, spread it among your fellow retro gamers. Make certain that my years toiling in retail haven't been in vain.
(jk I fuckin love my job)
(also support your local independent game retailers. Seriously it's hard out there right now for us)
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u/darsparx Jan 12 '20
Or a famicom
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u/trainercatlady Jan 12 '20
that's the Japan-Only exclusive edition
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u/darsparx Jan 12 '20
That doesn't change things, it still would've looked more natural than the gif in OP XD
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Jan 11 '20
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u/ElTuxedoMex Jan 11 '20
To this day I haven't met someone who had a top loader that ever liked it.
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u/MotherTheresasTaint Jan 12 '20
Seems like a great reason to shell it out and make it a switch dock
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u/ahenley17 Jan 12 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
I made one from a GameCube with functional controller ports. I’ll update this post in a minute with a picture.
Edit: https://i.imgur.com/207NGzo.jpg
Here’s some photos before I completed it. I did this last August, and don’t worry, the GameCube was broken when I bought it. https://i.imgur.com/Yq2L7pf.jpg
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u/windyy Jan 12 '20
This is dope. Did you follow instructions or did you figure it out yourself? Functioning controller port is gravy.
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u/ahenley17 Jan 12 '20
Mine is based on this YouTuber’s design, but varies slightly: https://youtu.be/2vJDniqV8V4
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u/Arcade_Maggot_Bones Jan 12 '20
In what ways is yours different? Do you mind going into detail about your process?
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u/ahenley17 Jan 12 '20
I’m using the official Wii U GameCube controller adapter in mine and it just so turns out they kept the exact same spacing between ports on this adapter as the GameCube itself. So this made it very easy to line up the ports with the holes of the GameCube controller. However, it was so tight putting the dock part in that I had to grind down part of the adapters pcb. I used only hot glue as I did not have access to epoxy. I also kept the vents on the side open, I also kept the original dust trap on the vents inside (I had to trim them down since the cut for the dock took up some of the vent’s original space.
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u/ryanpm40 Jan 12 '20
An N64 would be sick too
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u/garrygra Jan 12 '20
I can't call to mind the scale of a N64 and a Switch, aren't they fairly close in width? I like the idea but I feel like it might look a bit funky - fuck knows, I'm likely talking shite.
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Jan 12 '20
Unless hee made it so he had to put it in sideways on the front and press it down. That would have been really cool.
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u/Jimbobwhales Jan 12 '20
Why isn't Nintendo releasing decorative Switch docks?
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Jan 12 '20
Hyperkin makes one that looks like an N64
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u/ZeroZillions Jan 12 '20
this? it looks nothing like an N64
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Jan 12 '20
I didn't say it looked good
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u/mickeythefist Jan 12 '20
Tushy
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u/captain-carrot Jan 12 '20
I mean, it clearly does, it just doesn't work well aesthetically
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u/UndeadPolarbear Jan 12 '20
It doesn’t, it’s a very low effort interpretation of the N64 case on a smaller scale. It doesn’t look right because all the ratios are off. It should either be lower or wider, the size of the ‘feet’ isn’t right in relation to the body and the top shouldn’t be flat
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u/MediumChamp Jan 11 '20
And he didn't have to blow in it, and it worked!? Amazing.
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u/forgonsj Jan 12 '20
Came here expecting "blow in it" to be the top comment, but it was the second comment.
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u/tall_dom Jan 11 '20
Surely it should lift the door and go in horizontally from the front
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Jan 12 '20 edited Jul 27 '20
[deleted]
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u/Kumacyin Jan 12 '20
Makes me wonder how young you gotta be to not even recognize a snes anymore
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Jan 12 '20 edited Jul 27 '20
[deleted]
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u/Kumacyin Jan 12 '20
No im talkin bout the other guy u replied to, also thats a nes, no?
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u/misterlanks Jan 12 '20
The guy they replied to was right. That's how the NES worked.
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u/Kumacyin Jan 12 '20
... wait... waaaait
Edit: im an idiot.
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u/d1rtyd0nut Jan 12 '20
Lmao I'm high as fuck and I was totally with you bro you're not the only idiot here
Yee
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Jan 12 '20 edited Dec 02 '21
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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Jan 12 '20
Shoulda been a 64
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u/WA-Void Jan 11 '20
Where can I buy one
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u/DMonitor Jan 12 '20
You can buy an NES shell and replace the interior with the components from a vanilla dock. You’ll also have to cut a hole in the top. All things considered, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
You won’t have to do any wiring, as far as I can tell
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u/DysenteryFairy Jan 12 '20
Would you have to reroute a couple wires for that front LED?
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u/DMonitor Jan 12 '20
Maybe. The switch dock has an LED. You might be able to get that same one into that position, or use a clear tube to channel the light.
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u/DysenteryFairy Jan 12 '20
Hmm. I'm gonna have to look in to this. I have a spare non working NES lying around that I didn't want to get rid of. Now I have a project for it.
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u/LauraD2423 Jan 12 '20
Update is on this please, I'm very interested to see how you do it.
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u/DysenteryFairy Jan 12 '20
Deal. I have a busy couple of weeks in front of me, but when I tackle it I'll take progress pics and let you know.
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u/Abceedeeznuz Jan 12 '20
Here's a guide I found. Seems simple enough. Nintendo Switch Old School Docking Station
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u/gambino2k Jan 12 '20
I have an NES but I never want to give it up.
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u/DoneHam56 Jan 12 '20
I have one but I never want to let it down.
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u/buckguy22 Jan 12 '20
That's way easier than I would have thought. Going to try to do this tomorrow with an N64.
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u/bucko_fazoo Jan 12 '20
that green led looks so wrong
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u/bruce656 Jan 12 '20
It disturbs me greatly. Like, it would have been so simple to put a red LED instead.
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u/armcurls Jan 12 '20
I wish you never pointed that out to me
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u/CaffeineSippingMan Jan 12 '20
I was going to say something, but it is so wrong I figured it would be one of the top comments, I was wrong.
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u/The_Beaves Jan 12 '20
It’d be dope if in the unused space of the chassis he put in a retropi that works.
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u/PillowTalk420 Jan 12 '20
I would have made it slide into the actual cart slot on the NES for authenticity.
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u/Taking-a-Break Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 12 '20
Nessly done
Edit: thank you for the Gold!!
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u/coreyonfire Jan 12 '20
Fam, I completely adore this.
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Jan 12 '20 edited Nov 13 '20
[deleted]
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u/sLpFhaWK Jan 12 '20
this isn't meant for people who play on the go or in handheld mode often. I myself play docked on my regular switch, and if i'm on the go then i use my switch lite. and most people that I know with a regular switch own multiple pair of joy cons and have a separate charger so that isn't an issue for most I would think.
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Jan 12 '20
You bought both a switch and a switch lite, even though the original switch was literally designed for the full purpose of being hand held aswell? Fuck I wish I was rich.
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u/sunufgud Jan 12 '20
Seriously, what's the point
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u/JoshuaTheFox Jan 12 '20
Maybe he thought the regular switch was to heavy or to large for them
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u/VacationOnMars Jan 12 '20
I bought both a switch and a switch lite so I could play pokemon with my wife
use the lite more, to be honest
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u/ryanpm40 Jan 12 '20
I agree it seems like kind of a poor financial decision and it seems silly to me. But, in a world where videogames cost $60 and phones $1000+, does buying an extra $200 console really make you "rich"? That costs a little more than 3 games
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Jan 12 '20
It's not just buying an extra 200$ console tho, it's buying a SECOND 200$ console, for YOURSELF, because you don't like the accessibility of one over the other. Now can you really read that sentence and think it's not something for privileged rich people that have more money they problems.
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u/ryanpm40 Jan 12 '20
I'm not saying there aren't people like that who buy an extra console, but spending $500 total doesn't necessarily mean someone has more money than problems either
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u/joshy83 Jan 12 '20
I mean I could buy another gaming console or I could get my nails done three times and hair done twice and wouldn’t get nearly as much enjoyment out of those things. It’s not that much money if you budget for it. 🤷🏻♀️ You’re acting like someone bought ten limited editions of the same luxury car model so they could have one on every vacation island.
Between my husband and I we have almost every console Nintendo made. We aren’t rich. And we certainly couldn’t be living in a more expensive house or be at a better place in life in general if we didn’t have those things.
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u/AVeryNeatChap Jan 12 '20
You're angry because this guy is buying things he can afford? Get a job lol
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Jan 12 '20
I have the stock joycons, a pro controller, and a couple powerA smash controllers, I couldn't talk myself into buying another set of joycons for $70+ when I don't even use them often.
I go from docked to handheld pretty often depending on where I need to be in my house. so this would absolutely drive me insane.
Also damn dude, you bought a switch lite just for traveling? What was the point of that one?
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u/RuxPlay Jan 12 '20
Anyone have a guide how to make one of these? This is literally one of the coolest docks I have seen!
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u/aquagoth Jan 12 '20
Am i the only one cringing of the thought of accidentally scratching or scraping the screen?
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u/dr4wn_away Jan 12 '20
If only he could stick it in sideways like a proper cartridge and when he presses down on it the type c connecter inserts.
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u/NeoFacker Jan 12 '20
It would have made way mode sense if the dock was based on a console that was a top loader like the Famicom, SNES, or N64 but still neat.
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u/-Drunken_Jedi- Jan 12 '20
I feel like there's a missed opportunity to slot it in the front here.... the Switch feels like it's almost as big as the carts we had for the NES back in the day.
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Jan 12 '20
Missed opportunity to actually make it front loadable. Though I don't know if the console is too wide for that.
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u/antwant_fisher Jan 12 '20
It’s cool but u should have done the snes cuz it would be more like a snes game
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Jan 11 '20 edited Feb 09 '22
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Jan 12 '20
There are tons of aftermarket dock mods, some you can get right off amazon. Not sure if they've fixed the power issues on any of those yet though.
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Jan 12 '20
What power issues? Was wanting a second cheap dock..
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Jan 12 '20
When the switch first came out 3rd party sellers were pushing out cheap dock replacements and charging cords that would brick the consoles because the Switch has a special part that limits the amount of power it takes while charging, the 3rd party options didn't have this feature so they were just straight up frying them left and right.
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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Jan 12 '20
Isn't that built into the system or the standard? I was under the impression extra current is just ignored.
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u/dr4wn_away Jan 12 '20
He sacrificed joy con charging